Rolf Benirschke
"My name is Rolf Benirschke. If you didn't understand it, I know it's a mouthful." Rolf Joachim Benirschke (born February 7, 1955) was a place kicker for the San Diego Chargers from 1977-86 who was named NFL Man of the Year in 1983 and played a Pro Bowl that same year. From 1980-82, he was a radio and TV commentator for the San Diego Sockers, a pro team in the now-defunct North American Soccer League, and in 1983 was the first subject of a short-lived This Is Your Life revival hosted by Joseph Campanella. Benirschke is also the national spokesman for a charity dealing with Ulcerative Colitis (the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America), which he was diagnosed with in 1978. In 1990, he founded the Great Comebacks program, which informs and helps those who have Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or colorectal cancer along with their loved ones. Rolf's autobiography, Alive & Kicking, was published in 1996 and reissued in 1999. This was followed by Great Comebacks from Ostomy Surgery in 2002 and Embracing Life: Great Comebacks from Ostomy Surgery in 2009. For a brief six-month period in 1989, Benirschke hosted the daytime Wheel of Fortune, replacing Pat Sajak. Selection While initially being rather afraid of many elements of his illness, Benirschke slowly became courageous and eventually developed a sense of humor about the whole matter. This only increased when, following his mid-1980 comeback to the Chargers, fans responded in kind (and en masse) after NFL Today unexpectedly aired his detailed account of what he went through. Around November 1988, Rolf was a guest on KABC's morning show A.M. Los Angeles (hosted by Steve Edwards and Adrienne Barbeau) to discuss healthy habits, albeit in probably the most absurd way: the first guests of the day were two child stars of the Les Miserables stage production, while the next ones were a group of rabbits who quickly began procreating. Regardless, during his segment discussing healthy habits, Merv Griffin (who happened to be watching that day) quickly sensed that Benirschke was a genuine, sincere person who loved people, resulting in Rolf being offered an audition for Winfall.The Washington Post, December 15, 1988 (note that the page misspells the title as "Windfall") No, not Wheel - Winfall, Merv's newest game show project (Monopoly had already been in development for a year) which involved phrases beginning with, ending with, or containing certain words or letters with the money values determined by a pachinko machine. Rolf never had aspirations for TV, but this had previously been his attitude toward pro football until he was drafted; noting the parallels, he viewed this as an opportunity to get a glimpse into an industry he did not know much about. Benirschke reportedly did so well here that Merv offered him an audition for the daytime Wheel. Merv selected Rolf over 30 other candidates, including Vanna White (offered the job, but turned it down), M. G. Kelly, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, John Gabriel, Tim Brando (who reportedly did so well that Merv said he "could host the show tomorrow"), and Roger Twibell. Benirschke was placed on a shortlist with either Brando or Twibell and did not expect to be chosen as, unlike the aforementioned candidates, Rolf had little television experience and even less familiarity with Wheel...and as a result was "totally shocked" when told he had gotten the job. The official statement by Merv Griffin Enterprises was that Benirschke was open and sincere, Vanna liked him, and he understood the game. His father, Kurt, was shocked that his son had become a game show host (he had considered football as recreation rather than a career until his son's hospitalization in 1979). The announcement was made on December 13, 1988, and Rolf began taping the next day. Less than a week into taping, he appeared for a one-on-one interview on a show called Sports Look,[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4T_X1JpdqM Sports Look interview], mid-December 1988 during which he noted the kindness of the staff and Vanna along with the fact that in the eight shows he had taped so far, he had given away three cars, a boat, a truck, a Jeep, and a cruise. Benirschke's first Wheel appearance was in a promo advertising his January 10, 1989 debut. Oddly, on his debut, Vanna walked out first to introduce him. Hosting Style "It's a lot different than football..." Rolf was visibly nervous and uncomfortable on his earliest outings, with at least two known major instances being cited through the years. On one of his first episodes, the game ended in a tie and he admitted on-camera that he did not know what to do; later, during a Teen Week, he looked at the wrong arrow during a Final Spin and was corrected by a contestant (who also pointed out that instead of $2,000 he actually landed on Bankrupt). A comment left on this Wiki by a contestant who played during Benirschke's tenure noted that at least one of his early episodes had to have a bonus puzzle thrown out due to him accidentally accepting a wrong answer as correct. As his time on the show progressed, Benirschke became increasingly comfortable in the role and developed mannerisms of his own such as "Hurry, hurry!" if a contestant was near Bankrupt or Lose A Turn, or saying that the player's cash was "in the bank". A highlight of his tenure was a player winning $65,271, the largest of the daytime run. During this period, Rolf appeared for the week of February 13-17 on Hollywood Squares (believed to be his only other game show appearance) and was credited as being from Wheel. The Thursday episode of this week can be seen here, albeit with very low audio. Ratings Over the years, Rolf has been widely cited as the reason why the original daytime series fell in the ratings and was subsequently removed from the NBC schedule after 14½ years. In reality, the ratings did not really budge: while some viewers did tune out early on, The Price Is Right was continuing to build on its ratings lead by drawing viewers away from nearly all of its competition except Wheel, resulting in the latter remaining #2 in daytime - albeit a progressively more distant #2 as time went on. Contemporary media never blamed Rolf: when his hiring was announced, they supported him; when CBS announced the show's renewal the day after NBC announced its cancellation, they quickly assumed he would "not miss a day of work". Further, Benirschke was told that Merv wanted to retain him as emcee, meaning that the only changes following June 30 would be the format, audiovisual presentation, and taping location; CBS had other plans, however, and Rolf's last episode turned out to be the same day. While Benirschke never got a formal on-air goodbye, the June 30 show contains the extended full credit roll used on other NBC finales and is the only known time Charlie O'Donnell signed off with his name. Indeed, the first sign that Rolf had been dismissed at all was a TV Guide advert for the show's return on July 17 which used "New Host"; Bob Goen was announced as his replacement on July 7. Interestingly, shortly before CBS picked up Wheel, they had been optioning Merv's Winfall, which had gone to pilot with Clint Holmes as host.[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsTkSMpeXh4 Winfall (Clint Holmes) pilot clips] According to Holmes in a March 1989 interview, the show was slated for a possible debut that Summer.Philadelphia Inquirer, March 10, 1989 Shame? For many years, it was rumored that Rolf was ashamed of his Wheel tenure and preferred not to talk about it, with some pointing to the Great Comebacks website (see below) as proof. In reality, he did so at least three times: devoting Chapter 20 of his 1996 autobiography to Wheel,Alive & Kicking (1999 reprint), Pages 226-231 appearing on the show's E! True Hollywood Story in 2005, and briefly talking about it during an interview on Sports Talk in October 2011 after a clip of his debut was shown;[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL041uJfZ00 Sports Talk interview], October 2011 (Wheel discussion begins at 7:49) the quality of the clip is clearly not from a primary source, and may have been found online. Further, Benirschke has never viewed his association with Wheel as anything but positive, noting in his autobiography that he enjoyed doing what he called "an interesting experience" and "looking back, I have no regrets". Wheel itself has directly recognized Rolf's contributions at least once, in a December 1989 daytime episode which celebrated the show's reaching a combined total of 5,000 episodes. Since then, however, he appears to have been forgotten despite the show having many Chargers players on in some manner, whereas sister show Jeopardy! used his brief tenure as a clue in a "Game Show Hosts" category on June 7, 1999 (the correct response being "Wheel of Fortune"), an episode also notable for having 1984 Tic-Tac-Dough champion Kit Salisbury as a contestant.J! Archive: June 7, 1999 clues and responses Surprisingly, Benirschke's first Bonus Round was used as the retro bonus puzzle on February 20, 2013, which not only provided the only known instance of the retro bonus puzzle being from the daytime Wheel and the only known instance of non-Sajak-era footage since 2003, but indirectly recognized Rolf's contributions for the first time since the combined 5,000th episode over 20 years earlier. It is not known why this particular episode was used as a retro clip, but the fact it was used at all suggests an indirect acknowledgement of this Wiki. References External Links * Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America * Great Comebacks Category:People Category:Hosts Category:Wheel of Fortune